Communication systems are well known and consist of many types, including land mobile radio, cellular radiotelephone, personal communication systems, and other communication system types. Within a communication system, transmissions are conducted between a transmitting device and a receiving device over a communication resource, commonly referred to as a communication channel. Data transmission within a cdma2000 communication system takes place by assigning the remote unit a data channel (referred to as a radio-frequency, or RF channel) and transmitting data utilizing the RF channel.
When the user is actively transmitting/receiving or has recently transmitted/received on the RF channel, the user is referred to as being in an “active” state. Typically, if the user is in the active state, and neither sends nor receives data for a period of time, then the user is transitioned off of the RF channel (transitioned from active to dormant).
The ability to quickly re-access an RF channel may be limited due to the transition delay from active to dormant state. In other words, once an RF channel is dropped, any subsequent transmission/re-transmission of data over an RF channel can result in delay in re-accessing the RF channel. Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for data transmission within a communication system that minimizes the occurrence of dormant to active transitions and results in more efficient use of the data channel than with prior-art methods.